Archaeologists excavating in Jerusalem's City of David have uncovered massive wooden beams charred by the fire that consumed the First Temple, a discovery announced just days before Tisha B'Av.
The beams were found during excavations at the Giv'ati Parking Lot dig, run jointly by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University, within the Jerusalem Walls National Park. They date to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE, and were uncovered inside a building that collapsed during the blaze that swept through the city at the time.
According to excavation director Efrat Bocher, the beams appear to have supported the roof of an inner courtyard in a First Temple period structure, and came down onto the building's floor as the fire raged. Bocher and her team believe plaster that coated the building's walls melted in the heat of the flames and settled over the charred wood, sealing it in place and helping preserve it for roughly 2,600 years. She described the find as an unusually moving one, coming just before the fast that marks the destruction itself, saying it offers a tangible sense of the actual moment the catastrophe unfolded.
The beams are now being studied by the Israel Antiquities Authority's Dr. Johanna Regev, who noted that wood with this many growth rings is rarely found in Israel. The thickness and ring count of the City of David beams give researchers unusual potential for precise dating. Where finds from this period could previously only be dated to within a range of centuries, Regev said the beams may allow archaeologists to narrow that window down to as little as a decade.
